


Hot as Lava

by dragonsofarlathan



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff, Implied Sexual Content, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Yeah basically just lots of cuteness with my favorite ot3, at the end, but i didn't really include any oops, i don't know how to write sex scenes for two people let alone three, the floor is lava
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-20
Updated: 2018-03-20
Packaged: 2019-04-05 05:03:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14036754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonsofarlathan/pseuds/dragonsofarlathan
Summary: Xavia has one of the best ideas in the history of the galaxy to make mandatory shore leave a bit more fun for her girlfriends.





	Hot as Lava

**Author's Note:**

> Dalila Shepard belongs to [gaysparkler!](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gaysparkler/pseuds/gaysparkler) We started shipping our Shepards together and now we can't stop

Xavia, Dalila, and Liara sat in the living room of their apartment on the Citadel that Anderson gave Dalila. They were on mandatory shore leave, and Liara and Xavia all but forbad Dalila from leaving the house except for “fun missions,” as Xavia called it. To make it fair, Dalila said that if the other two women didn’t leave the house, then she wouldn’t either. In other words, now that Dalila couldn’t do any work for the Alliance or Council, Liara couldn’t do any work as the Shadow Broker, and Xavia couldn’t go to the Armax Arsenal Arena, they were all three at a loss for what to do.

 

Dalila and Liara ended up on their datapads secretly working on assignments, but Xavia lay on the couch, bored as hell. She could go work out in the spare bed room on the equipment Anderson left, but after beating James’s ass the other day by 10 over his record, Xavia’s arms were still too sore for something as strenuous as that. They weren’t too sore for the Armax Arena, of course, but _somebody_ wouldn’t let her leave the house to do that. So, Xavia was left to her own devices and imagination. Luckily, she had a very good imagination and a very nostalgic memory.

 

“The floor is lava,” Xavia whispered, before sitting up. Dalila didn’t even spare Xavia a glance.

 

“Hmm?” she asked, still scrolling through messages on her datapad.

 

She repeated. “The. Floor. Is. Lava.”

 

Liara, now, glanced up at her lover. “What does that mean?”

 

“It’s a game human children play,” Dalila answered, looking like she was caught between amusement and disappointment. “I haven’t played that game since I was six.”

 

“Neither have I,” Xavia responded, standing up on the couch now, “but what can I say? The floor has a tendency to become molten, no matter how old the people in the room are.”

 

“I really need to finish this report, Xavia,” Liara said. She, too, seemed like she couldn’t decide if she wanted to join in or tell Xavia to sit down. “It’s really important.”

 

“You know what else is really important? Shore leave. Destressing. Though usually everything around you being hot and dangerous usually isn’t a good thing, it is in this situation.”

 

“There’s a slight problem with that,” Dalila said, looking at her prosthetic leg. “I can’t exactly move like I used to.”

 

Xavia smiled sympathetically at her girlfriend. “Well, maybe the lava will give you a handicap? Oh, wait! Can you use your biotics?”

 

Dalila stared at Xavia, then raised an eyebrow. “You want me to use my biotics—which would have basically been considered a superpower a hundred years ago—so I can play ‘the floor is lava’ with you, a thirty-six year old woman, in the apartment our old captain gave us, in the middle of a war?”

 

Xavia deadpanned. “Yes.”

 

“Is this really that important to you?”

 

“Yes.”

 

Dalila rolled her eyes and put her datapad on the coffee table. “Sometimes, Xavia, sometimes,” she chuckled, standing up on her seat. It was a simple one, basically just a soft table, so she had no problem standing on it. “I’ll go along with this for like twenty minutes, but then I need to get back to what I was working on.”

 

“We’ll see if you still want to stop in twenty minutes,” Xavia replied, smirking. Dalila rolled her eyes again before she half-jumped, half-stumbled onto the coffee table, then did it again to land on the sofa between Xavia and the still-sitting Liara. Xavia gave her lover a kiss, then the two humans look at the asari.

 

 “How is lava supposed to be fun?” Liara asked, still not convinced.

 

“It’s not fun, exactly, but humans try to make light of things that scare them,” Xavia said. “And usually, it ends up becoming a kid’s thing. It’s kind of fucked up, but that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable of a game. Or destressing.”

 

Liara sighed. “Fine. Hopefully it makes more sense in practice than it does in theory.”

 

“It really doesn’t,” Dalila commented.

 

“Yes!” Xavia exclaimed, ignoring Dalila. She reached a hand down to help Liara up, almost knocking Dalila over in the process. Once they were all standing on the couch, Liara looked around.

 

“So, what now?” she asked.

 

“Well,” Xavia, too, glanced around the room. They were going to have a bit of difficulty going from place to place with how long the hallway was, but surely they would think of something when they got to that point.

 

“Now we just… see how much of the house we can get to without falling into the lava,” she continued. To start, Xavia jumped from the couch onto the coffee table, then from the coffee table to the chair Dalila was sitting on before. Once she landed successfully on the chair, she looked back at her lovers and smiled triumphantly. Liara chuckled and Dalila smiled back, both shaking their heads at Xavia. Xavia realized something: unlike Dalila and Liara, she was rubbish at leading people in a practical setting like the military, but she could lead her two girlfriends in having fun. She could lead the leaders. She had so much power.

 

Liara hesitated, but finally, she jumped across the lava covered floor and landed on the coffee table. Her graceful landing made her grin, and she continued on the same path as Xavia, landing on the table-chair. Now, it was time for Dalila to make her move.

 

“Can you fit another person on that seat?” Dalila asked, raising an eyebrow. Her concern made sense, but Xavia wasn’t a quitter.

 

“Of course!” she responded, not even giving the question a second thought. “We can fit, it’ll just be a bit tight. We can do this.”

 

“Xavia Hale, if I fall into the lava because we can’t fit on that chair, I’m holding you personally responsible,” Dalila said.

 

Xavia laughed. “We can do it if you believe we can, Dalila. Just believe.”

 

Dalila shook her head, then made her way onto the coffee table. It was still far from graceful, but Dalila hadn’t used her biotics yet, which was a good sign.

 

Once she landed, Dalila took a deep breath, then leapt onto the chair. Xavia and Liara almost fell back, but they were able to catch themselves before it was too late.

 

“See! We did it!” Xavia exclaimed, smiling. The three exchanged high fives all around, then they all simultaneously realized their mistake.

 

They were surrounded by stairs and meters of no furniture.

 

“So, what now, Xavia?” Liara asked. There was a hint of “I told you we shouldn’t play this game” in her voice, and Xavia didn’t like it.

 

“We scoot,” she replied. Dalila and Liara looked at Xavia. “What! Do you guys have a better idea? I say we scoot until we reach the stairs, then go from there.”

 

“Really?” Dalila asked. “How can we wing it up stairs?”

 

Xavia looked around again. “Oh! The fireplace!” she said victoriously. “We can climb on top of the edge of the fireplace, scoot across very carefully, and then go from there onto the couch in the room with the bar.”

 

“Well, it’s worth a shot,” Liara said, shrugging.

 

Xavia went first again, placing her leg on the fireplace ledge, then slowly angling herself and putting more weight on her leg. She gripped the edge of the shelf with all the books and movie albums, then quickly swung her other leg over to join the first. Once successful, of course Xavia had to make a “ha ha!” sound before beginning the long trek around the ledge.

 

“Don’t fall,” Dalila teased, and Xavia would have flipped her off if she didn’t need both her hands to ensure she didn’t fall in the lava. Instead, she made a mocking “haha” sound, and continued easing her way across.

 

Once she reached the pile of wood, Dalila climbed onto the fireplace as well. It took her a minute to get solid footing, but she still didn’t use her biotics. Xavia was already on the couch in the other room when Liara joined Dalila, but she smiled when she heard her girlfriends laughing when Liara almost fell.

 

It took a bit of time, but eventually, all three women were on the couch in the room next to where they began. Dalila and Liara were truly having fun now, and the happiness and ease on their faces was something Xavia saw far too little. It had her grinning like an idiot right along with them.

 

“So, to the bar?” Dalila asked.

 

“To the bar!” Xavia shouted, pointing towards the bar.

 

This time, however, Dalila went first. She stood on the arm of the couch, then very cautiously reached her leg across to the bar table. It took a moment to get her prosthetic leg in a steady position, especially with how hard it was for her to bend it, but once she got a nice grip, she jumped off the sofa with her other foot and landed a bit wobbly on the table. She made it, though, and glanced back happily at her two lovers. She was about to continue onto the bar against the wall, but she stopped.

 

“How are we supposed to get up the stairs?” she asked, looking at Xavia and Liara.

 

They exchanged glances. Good question. “Can you make it to the railing?” Xavia asked, unsure. It would definitely be a stretch to make it around the wall, but that was their best option.

 

“I could try,” Dalila said, though she looked skeptical. She continued onto the other part of the bar, anyway, and prepared herself for the attempt.

 

While Dalila tested her reach and flexibility, Xavia followed behind her and made it from the couch to the bar. Liara opted to wait until at least one of them made it to the stairs before she followed, but she had quite the dirty look on her face as she watched Xavia sit on her knees on the bar, her ass pointed at Liara, and Dalila right next to her, trying to wiggle across the wall and land safely on the railing without falling to her death.

 

“My eyes are up here,” Xavia joked, and Liara blushed. “You can’t see Dalila’s eyes, but I’m pretty sure they are nowhere near where you’re checking out.”

 

“Forgive me, but the two of you are hotter than the lava currently threatening our lives,” Liara winked, and Xavia nearly fell off the bar.

 

“Hot,” Dalila said, as she disappeared behind the wall. “And while my two useless girlfriends were flirting like teenagers, I managed to do the impossible. With the help of my biotics, sure, but it was still impossible.”

 

“Great job!” Xavia told her. “And don’t pretend you don’t like listening to your two useless girlfriends flirt.”

 

“You’re right, I do,” Dalila sighed, lost in thought for a moment. Eventually, she continued. “But it’s your turn now, Xavia, so remember: be careful.”

 

Xavia sighed. “Now I’m going to fall into the lava just because you said that.” Xavia crossed the gap between the front and back of the bar, and then she began the peerless journey from the bar to the stairs, one that little attempt and even fewer ever survive (probably). This could make or break her career (definitely not), and failure could cost her life (not at all). This, this right here, would be one of the toughest things she would ever do in her life, maybe even the toughest. Everything and everyone depended on her making it across this wall and onto the railing, unscathed.

 

It was now or never.

 

The hardest part for Xavia, admittedly, was the fact she could barely use her arms because of how sore they were. That was her fault, and she was paying the price tenfold. Thankfully, her legs were still in pique physical condition, and they were able to do their job to their full extend, even pick up the slack a bit from what her arms were too weak to do. She definitely didn’t regret those fitness training classes during her time with the Alliance.

 

Once one of her feet were firmly sitting on the middle railing, Xavia swung her other leg over. She struggled to find the railing then steady herself, but she managed. She knew Dalila was close by because she could hear her snicker lovingly at Xavia’s struggles, as a good girlfriend should while the other dangles meters upon meters of lava. It’s actually recommended by most doctors.

 

“You almost got it,” Liara said, also amused by Xavia’s troubles. Liara was on the bar now, too, waiting for Xavia to either perish or make it across the railing. Xavia hoped she would be as victorious on the next part as she was every time before.

 

Now, she just had to bring her chest and arms over the side of the wall and join her legs. Her arms were threatening to give out any minute, so she had to do it fast, jerkily sliding her body along the wall. It couldn’t have looked pleasant and it absolutely wasn’t, but finally, Xavia was completely on the stair railing.

 

“I did it!” Xavia shouted, looking with glee at Dalila. The other woman chuckled, and they high-fived again. They scooted a bit up the railing so Liara would have room to join them.

 

Liara struggled a bit, too, but not nearly as much as Xavia. It was practically perfect. _Too_ perfect. Xavia had known Liara for three years, and over time, the asari became less and less against cheating. Xavia eyed Liara skeptically.

 

“Wow, we all made it to the railing, and _only_ Dalila used her biotics. Which is completely understandable because she only has one leg. But you and me, Liara? We have two legs, so we didn’t use our biotics. Not that I can use biotics. But if I could, I still wouldn’t have used it to make it across.”

 

“Yes, either you didn’t use biotics, or you just used them quite poorly,” Liara laughed.

 

“Well, you didn’t use yours either, and you did pretty well,” Xavia added.

 

Liara raised her eyebrow, smiling. “You’re right, I didn’t need to.”

 

Xavia rolled her eyes. “Of course you didn’t. You’re just that impressive.”

 

“You’re right, I am. But you are too, just not at jumping.” She smirked. “And Dalila is impressive with her biotics.”

 

“Thank you, dear,” Dalila said.

 

With Xavia now shamed and complimented after trying to call out Liara, the three of them focused on climbing the stair railing.

 

“Wait,” Liara began as they reached the halfway point, “why is the lava up the stairs, too? Does it manage to hit every step on the way down? Is the source of the lava up here somewhere? If there’s only a limited supply and it all flows downstairs, then shouldn’t it be safe up here after it has time to cool off and harden into rock? I know I haven’t studied lava much, but how would it be possible?”

 

“How would the floor be able to spontaneously transform into lava?” Xavia asked as she continued to climb the railing. “It doesn’t make sense. Sometimes you just have to go with the flow—the flow of the lava, in this case.” Xavia chuckled at her own stupid joke that wasn’t funny nor really a joke.

 

“Well, if we went with the flow of the lava, then we would be going downstairs,” Dalila reminded her.

 

“Sometimes, you just have to go against the flow of the lava,” Xavia corrected.

 

They reached the top of the stairs, and they were presented with another dilemma: they couldn’t go anywhere from there. They could inch across the wood paneling to their left, but they would be stuck again at the end of the hall. Xavia looked around, but she couldn’t find an answer to their problem.

 

“Maybe I could sacrifice myself?” Xavia asked. “We could go along the wood paneling, then at the end of the hall, I could give my life and you guys can use my body to cross into the bedroom.”

 

“That seems…a bit excessive, don’t you think?” Dalila said.

 

“Well, do you have any better ideas?” Xavia retorted.

 

“Does the rug count as floor or furniture?” Liara asked, pointing to the big shag rug in the middle of the loft by the paintings and sculptures.

 

“I mean, it could be considered furniture, but we can’t really go anywhere from there, can we?” Xavia questioned, looking at Liara.

 

“Well, after a death defying stunt like the one we just pulled,” Dalila began, picking up on what Liara was saying, “we could probably use a little break. Maybe…celebrate that we all lived.”

 

It finally clicked in Xavia’s brain. “Oh, right,” she said, smirking. “You’re right. We should celebrate our victory. Too bad we didn’t grab a bottle of wine while we were at the bar, though.”

 

Dalila chuckled. “I think we’ll manage just fine without it.”

 

They continued walking along the rail on the stairs, switching to the right side so they could reach the rug. They could hardly keep their hands off each other, though, and all three of them almost fell off the railing at least once.

 

Once they reached the rug, they settled down together, and they began their celebrations.

 

Xavia decided “the floor is lava” was the best idea she could have had.

**Author's Note:**

> I have a [Tumblr!](https://aveline-the-dragon-slayer.tumblr.com)


End file.
